DENVER, CO – Saturday, May 31, 2008 – On a beautiful Saturday night in the Mile High City, Ryan Powell made his debut in front of 8,127 at INVESCO Field at Mile High. With 5 points for the night, Powell earned the Bud Light MVP award. The Denver Outlaws beat the New Jersey Pride 19-11.

The second meeting for these two teams started off with a bang. Pride midfielder Daniel Chemotti scored within the first 90 seconds, but Denver’s Matt Hanna was quick to respond with a goal assisted by Powell. With two more goals by the Outlaws, New Jersey’s Kevin Boland got the last goal of the quarter on a power play, making it only a 3-2 lead by the Outlaws.

Starting off the second quarter, Brendan Mundorf scored for Denver unassisted at 1:26. In his 87th game, putting him at the top of the MLL record for games played, attackman Scott Urick got his only goal for the night, due to the fact that he was injured later in the quarter. Nate Watkins got his first goal as an Outlaw with an assist by Powell. Now with Urick out, Merrick Thomson scored for the Pride on another power play. The Outlaws’ top scorer Matt Brown made it 6-4 with an assist by Tom Ethington to finish out the half.

After being held to only one assist in the first half, Powell scored an unassisted goal in the second half. His goal started an unanswered 8 point run by the Outlaws. During that run, Brian Langtry got one goal and one 2-point goal, Drew Westervelt scored, Geoff Snider had two goals, and Jeff Sonke had his first goal of the game. At 12:57, Thomson ended Denver’s run, which was followed by another goal by attackman Chris Unterstein.

In a hat trick performance, Thomson opened up the last quarter with a goal. Playing the midfield position, Drew Westervelt scored from a pass by Powell. That assist tied Powell in second with his brother Casey for career assists. With 4:42 left in the game, Greg Peyser of the Pride got a goal, making the score 17-10. Rob Parengkuan had the last goal for New Jersey, and Jeff Sonke scored Denver’s last two finishing out the game.

New Jersey’s goalie, Rob Scherr had 20 saves for the night while Outlaw Jesse Schwartzman recorded 17.

The Outlaws will be back at home on June 14 playing San Francisco.

For complete statistics, please click here: http://www.pointstreak.com/prostats/boxscore.html?gameid=674393